The invention relates to the field of switching regulators, and in particular to being able to switch between two control modes while keeping a regulator output in regulation.
Many switching regulators use two distinct control loops; one for high-power operation and one for low-power operation. Traditionally, there have been significant difficulties in being able to switch between two control modes while keeping a switching regulator output in regulation between the minimum and maximum voltages specified in the datasheet. When switching from low-power control to high-power control, experience with previous versions of the regulator show that the voltage may decrease to about 200 mV below the ideal regulation point, 100 mV below the datasheet minimum voltage. It takes a few tens of cycles before an equilibrium state is achieved which hinders performance.